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Headlamps not as clear as day
Headlamps – not as clear as day !
Much has changed since I bought my first Petzl Zoom in 1988. Back in those days, the only folk using head lamps were cavers and climbers. I remember the squiff looks I got from other occupants of the campsite as I walked to the showers with my lamp on my head.
This situation didn’t change much until 2001 when Black Diamond decided to get involved in the headlamp market. As a group of mountain enthusiasts who often needed light for their “dawn patrol” ski sessions, multi-day ascents of Yosemite big walls and epics on Alaskan alpine peaks, they needed more than what the old Zoom could provide. They needed better light for longer and so they turned to the newly emerging technology of Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) and launched a offering of seven headlamps which effectively revolutionised the headlamp market for ever. At that stage, LED’s were not capable of putting out a very bright light – but they could provide proximity lighting for an amazingly long time. At a time when we were happy to get 17 hours out of a big, expensive 4.5V battery, suddenly we had the Gemini offering over 500 hours out of three AA batteries ! Black Diamond then combined this capacity with new style halogen bulbs to produce a “hybrid” light which could give up to 120m throws on the halogen and many, many hours of proximity lighting on the LED’s.
All this put a serious dent in Petzl’s dominance in the market, and to their credit they reacted very quickly & effectively with the launch of the Tikka series – which caused a second revolution toward small, battery-in-the-front headlamps – something which anyone & every one could / would use.
It took some time for Black Diamond to re-enter the ring with their own battery-in-front styles, but the innovation was less significant focusing on getting more performance out of the LED’s and introducing more powerful LED styles – including the iconic “Icon” which is now capable of putting out as much light as a halogen bulb. So once again, Black Diamond started to take back some market share. Last month, we saw the arrival of the new Petzl range – and once again, the innovation is now less significant; seeking to eek yet more performance out of the technology.
As would be expected each of the above developments has been accompanied by a certain level of “salesmanship” – whereby information is presented in the manner most beneficial to the “cause” (aka hot air!). In most cases this (understandable) behaviour has been possible due to the absence of effective measurement tools – anyone can claim performance, but if there is no agreed measure, then one cannot compare like with like. All this leads to market to confusion and the dominant brand usually benefits because, “if you can’t see through the muck – then stick with something you know”!
The latest “advance” is a case in point; just as the industry had agreed on a certain way of indicating performance by advertising “throws” at t:0; t:30min and t:10hrs, combined with respective burn times on the various light modes; the whole subject of “lumens” is thrown into the fray – which really confuses the heck out of the market. As you will note from the Black Diamond Power Point presentation (attached) – “lumen ratings” are something of a red herring because Lumens “is the measurement of perceived power of light and often confused with how ‘bright’ a light product will be.”
Two issues are problematic:
1. Lumens does not say anything about the effective use of that light output - “when BD and other manufacturers spec an LED, they are choosing a rating defined by lumens per watt. Many manufacturers of lamp products (flashlights) will put a lumen rating on the product’s package. Often, this is a measurement of the raw LED powered at a specific voltage and current. This could be the LED manufacturer’s rating or the lamp manufacturers rating, but it frequently does NOT include the inefficiencies associated with the collection of the light and the projection of the light through a lens or other device.”
Effective use of light is better described by “Lux - this is a measurement derived from the lumen and takes into account the area over which the light is spread. 100 lumens collected and projected onto a 1 meter square field will light the field with an ILLUMINANCE of 100 lux. The same 100 lumens spilled over a field 10 square meters will have an illuminance of 10 lux”.
A good example is the fact that while the Black Diamond Cosmo only has a rating of 15 Lumens, it gives a pretty descent throw of 38m which is considerably further than the competition’s unit (Tikka Plus) which has an advertised rating of 50 Lumens ! In addition, the Cosmo still throws further than the competition’s unit after 10hours!
2. The second issue is the balance between light output & battery durability. For any LED of a particular lumen specification, the manufacturer can choose how much power they are going to pump through the unit. They can pump the maximum that the LED can handle, which will give a very high light intensity (measured in Candela) but will drain the battery very quickly.
The Cosmo example applies once again : it will provide useful light for 100 hours on High – while it’s competitor will only do 55hrs. In an economy mode the Cosmo will give 200hrs vs. 144hrs from the competitor.
This difference is illustrated even more dramatically when the headlamp’s output is regulated to provide constant illumination. For example, the Princeton Tec Eos bike on will, on it’s low setting, shine 16m consistently for 50hours – when the beams of all competing lights hit that level after 10hours and consistently decline thereafter.
Quite clearly there is a trade off between light output & burn times. Manufacturers use all kinds of wizardry from lens and reflector design to circuit board and heat sink design to achieve the best results from a light – and one cannot simply compare two different lights on one statistic – you need to compare all the performance information in order to get the best picture of how one unit compares to the next.
All that said – most retailers will still argue that “brand sells” and they want to capitalise on what’s “hot”. We at Ram Mountaineering acknowledge this reality – and we continue with our push to establish Black Diamond and Princeton Tec as the leading headlamp brands in the market. To this end, I would make the following points :
1. Headlamps are no longer a simple product and users need to be taught to interrogate the statistics and to make a intelligent choice. Black Diamond & Princeton Tec have excellent offerings which outperform Petzl on many criteria and the customer must be alerted to this fact. That is the retailers responsibility – and the retailer who provides the best information, ensures customer satisfaction & secures the long term support of his client.
2. The tussle for brand leadership is very good for the development of the market and the product. It was Black Diamond’s entry into the fray that stimulated Petzl’s developments – as well as Princeton Tec, Energiser and a plethora of other brands. It is in the end user’s interest to have better product made available and it is therefore in the retailer’s interest to fuel this competition by actively supporting both sides – particularly the smaller brands.
3. In the end it all comes down to money and specifically value for money. In order to ensure customer satisfaction – the end user is less concerned about actual lumens, meters or hours – rather he wants to be sure that he gets the best performance AND reliability for his money. To that end we are confident that in most cases BLACK DIAMOND wins – hand’s down. Below is our new comparison table which spells out performance for Rand’s spent.
Notes in conclusion:
1. All stats quoted above are drawn from the manufacturer’s websites – please take time to check them out
2. As the leading manufacturers of headlamps in the market Black Diamond, Princeton Tec & Petzl are constantly working towards standardisation of performance measures. By the end of 2010 they will agree on the following standards: Battery life, beam distance, drop testing, waterproofness, beam intensity (candela) and total output (lumens). Please see the Black Diamond PowerPoint presentation for more information
Much has changed since I bought my first Petzl Zoom in 1988. Back in those days, the only folk using head lamps were cavers and climbers. I remember the squiff looks I got from other occupants of the campsite as I walked to the showers with my lamp on my head.
This situation didn’t change much until 2001 when Black Diamond decided to get involved in the headlamp market. As a group of mountain enthusiasts who often needed light for their “dawn patrol” ski sessions, multi-day ascents of Yosemite big walls and epics on Alaskan alpine peaks, they needed more than what the old Zoom could provide. They needed better light for longer and so they turned to the newly emerging technology of Light Emitting Diodes (LED’s) and launched a offering of seven headlamps which effectively revolutionised the headlamp market for ever. At that stage, LED’s were not capable of putting out a very bright light – but they could provide proximity lighting for an amazingly long time. At a time when we were happy to get 17 hours out of a big, expensive 4.5V battery, suddenly we had the Gemini offering over 500 hours out of three AA batteries ! Black Diamond then combined this capacity with new style halogen bulbs to produce a “hybrid” light which could give up to 120m throws on the halogen and many, many hours of proximity lighting on the LED’s.
All this put a serious dent in Petzl’s dominance in the market, and to their credit they reacted very quickly & effectively with the launch of the Tikka series – which caused a second revolution toward small, battery-in-the-front headlamps – something which anyone & every one could / would use.
It took some time for Black Diamond to re-enter the ring with their own battery-in-front styles, but the innovation was less significant focusing on getting more performance out of the LED’s and introducing more powerful LED styles – including the iconic “Icon” which is now capable of putting out as much light as a halogen bulb. So once again, Black Diamond started to take back some market share. Last month, we saw the arrival of the new Petzl range – and once again, the innovation is now less significant; seeking to eek yet more performance out of the technology.
As would be expected each of the above developments has been accompanied by a certain level of “salesmanship” – whereby information is presented in the manner most beneficial to the “cause” (aka hot air!). In most cases this (understandable) behaviour has been possible due to the absence of effective measurement tools – anyone can claim performance, but if there is no agreed measure, then one cannot compare like with like. All this leads to market to confusion and the dominant brand usually benefits because, “if you can’t see through the muck – then stick with something you know”!
The latest “advance” is a case in point; just as the industry had agreed on a certain way of indicating performance by advertising “throws” at t:0; t:30min and t:10hrs, combined with respective burn times on the various light modes; the whole subject of “lumens” is thrown into the fray – which really confuses the heck out of the market. As you will note from the Black Diamond Power Point presentation (attached) – “lumen ratings” are something of a red herring because Lumens “is the measurement of perceived power of light and often confused with how ‘bright’ a light product will be.”
Two issues are problematic:
1. Lumens does not say anything about the effective use of that light output - “when BD and other manufacturers spec an LED, they are choosing a rating defined by lumens per watt. Many manufacturers of lamp products (flashlights) will put a lumen rating on the product’s package. Often, this is a measurement of the raw LED powered at a specific voltage and current. This could be the LED manufacturer’s rating or the lamp manufacturers rating, but it frequently does NOT include the inefficiencies associated with the collection of the light and the projection of the light through a lens or other device.”
Effective use of light is better described by “Lux - this is a measurement derived from the lumen and takes into account the area over which the light is spread. 100 lumens collected and projected onto a 1 meter square field will light the field with an ILLUMINANCE of 100 lux. The same 100 lumens spilled over a field 10 square meters will have an illuminance of 10 lux”.
A good example is the fact that while the Black Diamond Cosmo only has a rating of 15 Lumens, it gives a pretty descent throw of 38m which is considerably further than the competition’s unit (Tikka Plus) which has an advertised rating of 50 Lumens ! In addition, the Cosmo still throws further than the competition’s unit after 10hours!
2. The second issue is the balance between light output & battery durability. For any LED of a particular lumen specification, the manufacturer can choose how much power they are going to pump through the unit. They can pump the maximum that the LED can handle, which will give a very high light intensity (measured in Candela) but will drain the battery very quickly.
The Cosmo example applies once again : it will provide useful light for 100 hours on High – while it’s competitor will only do 55hrs. In an economy mode the Cosmo will give 200hrs vs. 144hrs from the competitor.
This difference is illustrated even more dramatically when the headlamp’s output is regulated to provide constant illumination. For example, the Princeton Tec Eos bike on will, on it’s low setting, shine 16m consistently for 50hours – when the beams of all competing lights hit that level after 10hours and consistently decline thereafter.
Quite clearly there is a trade off between light output & burn times. Manufacturers use all kinds of wizardry from lens and reflector design to circuit board and heat sink design to achieve the best results from a light – and one cannot simply compare two different lights on one statistic – you need to compare all the performance information in order to get the best picture of how one unit compares to the next.
All that said – most retailers will still argue that “brand sells” and they want to capitalise on what’s “hot”. We at Ram Mountaineering acknowledge this reality – and we continue with our push to establish Black Diamond and Princeton Tec as the leading headlamp brands in the market. To this end, I would make the following points :
1. Headlamps are no longer a simple product and users need to be taught to interrogate the statistics and to make a intelligent choice. Black Diamond & Princeton Tec have excellent offerings which outperform Petzl on many criteria and the customer must be alerted to this fact. That is the retailers responsibility – and the retailer who provides the best information, ensures customer satisfaction & secures the long term support of his client.
2. The tussle for brand leadership is very good for the development of the market and the product. It was Black Diamond’s entry into the fray that stimulated Petzl’s developments – as well as Princeton Tec, Energiser and a plethora of other brands. It is in the end user’s interest to have better product made available and it is therefore in the retailer’s interest to fuel this competition by actively supporting both sides – particularly the smaller brands.
3. In the end it all comes down to money and specifically value for money. In order to ensure customer satisfaction – the end user is less concerned about actual lumens, meters or hours – rather he wants to be sure that he gets the best performance AND reliability for his money. To that end we are confident that in most cases BLACK DIAMOND wins – hand’s down. Below is our new comparison table which spells out performance for Rand’s spent.
Notes in conclusion:
1. All stats quoted above are drawn from the manufacturer’s websites – please take time to check them out
2. As the leading manufacturers of headlamps in the market Black Diamond, Princeton Tec & Petzl are constantly working towards standardisation of performance measures. By the end of 2010 they will agree on the following standards: Battery life, beam distance, drop testing, waterproofness, beam intensity (candela) and total output (lumens). Please see the Black Diamond PowerPoint presentation for more information
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Tags: Black Diamond, LED, headlamps
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